PR: Abortion Referendum Rumours Unacceptable
25.09.2000
Reports in the Irish Independent (Monday, Sept. 25th, 2000) that the Government intends to re-introduce the failed 1992 wording on the so-called "substantive issue" of abortion, reveal the audacity of this administration to be boundless. Boundless too, it seems is their contempt for the democratic process.
It is untrue and wrong to claim that existing medical practise provides for abortion and that the maintenance of such current practise requires the legalisation of limited abortion. The Medical Council's ethical guidelines make this quite clear to anyone not trying to be deliberately dishonest. Moreover the All-Party Oireactais Committee received a written submission from the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which re-iterated this crucial fact. No medical evidence was heard from any quarter which refuted this in any substantial way. It is therefore quite shocking that the Committee is due to report with any other recommendation than a complete prohibition of abortion. More shocking still is that the Fianna Fail contingent should try to pass their thinking off as "Pro-life".
If the reports are accurate, and the Government acts upon them, they will essentially be presenting the 1992 wording again which was rejected overwhelmingly by the Irish people, as it provided for limited abortion. So-called "Pro-choice" opinion played a negligible role in that rejection and persons claiming such a diverse coalition risk ridicule. Yet after eight years, much debate and rancour, and two major Committees, the best that this Government can come up with is to take us right back where we started. This demonstrates with startling clarity that Fianna Fail is unwilling to accept the will of the people, and are arrogantly intent on an abortion dictate. Be assured they will be rejected again.
Bertie Ahern it seems is still writing blank cheques, this time for the international abortion industry. No one knows yet for certain how many lives, and how much misery it will be cashed for, but it will have his name on it, and it will be his only remembered legacy.
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